When she was a young woman, Marie Curie (then Marya Sklodowska) was both engaged to a young man named Kazimierz and hoping to move to Paris to further her education. When Kazimierz's mother forbids their engagement because Marya isn't good enough for her son, however, the young man breaks it off and his now-former fiancee heads to Paris to take the scientific world by storm. All of this is true. In Half Life, Cantor tells the story of Curie after she leaves home and heads to Paris, BUT in alternating chapters, she tells the completely fictional story of young Marya who stays with her fiancee (who has left his family behind), putting his work ahead of her own.
I'll be honest: I was skeptical of this premise through the first few chapters. But then I was suddenly 150 pages in and completely hooked. Cantor imbued her writing with enough detail and feeling that the competing plots felt equally plausible and real, as well as fated and dramatic. I ended up absolutely loving this book, and I'd highly recommend it to fans of historical fiction and science history.
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